The Quality of Mercy Part 31

"Mr. Hilary!" she called after him. He ran back to her. "If--if your father don't think anything can be done, I don't want he should say anything about it."

"Oh, no; certainly not."

"And, Mr. Hilary! Don't _you_ let Suzette know I spoke to you. _I'll_ tell her."

"Why, of course."

On his way to Boston the affair seemed to grow less and less impossible to Matt; but he really knew nothing of the legal complications; and when he proposed it to his father, old Hilary shook his head. "I don't believe it could be done. The man's regularly indicted, and he's in contempt of court as long as he doesn't present himself for trial.

That's the way I understand it. But I'll see our counsel. Whose scheme is this?"

"I don't know. Miss Northwick told me of it; but I fancied Miss Suzette--"

"Yes," said Hilary. "It must have cost her almost her life to give up her faith in that pitiful rascal."

"But after she had done that, it would cost her nothing to give up the property, and as I understood Miss Northwick, that was her sister's first impulse. She wished to give up her half of the estate unconditionally; but Miss Northwick wouldn't consent, and they compromised on the conditions she told me of."

"Well," said Hilary, "I think Miss Northwick showed the most sense. But of course, Sue's a n.o.ble girl. She almost transfigures that old scoundrel of a father of hers. That fellow--Jack Wilmington--ought to come forward now and show himself a man, if he _is_ one. _Any_ man might be proud of such a girl's love--and they say she was in love with him.

But he seems to have preferred to dangle after his uncle's wife. He isn't good enough for her, and probably he always knew it."

Matt profited by the musing fit that came upon his father, to go and look at the picture over the mantel. It was not a new picture; but he did not feel that he was using his father quite frankly; and he kept looking at it for that reason.

"If those poor creatures gave up their property, what would they do?

They've absolutely nothing else in the world!"

"I fancy," said Matt, "that isn't a consideration that would weigh with Suzette Northwick."

"No. If there's anything in heredity, the father of such a girl must have some good in him. Of course, they wouldn't be allowed to suffer."

"Do you mean that the company would regard the fact that it had no legal claim on the property, and would recognize it in their behalf?"

"The company!" Hilary roared. "The company has _no_ right to that property, moral _or_ legal. But we should act as if we had. If it were unconditionally offered to us, we ought to acknowledge it as an act of charity to us, and not of rest.i.tution. But every man Jack of us would hold out for a right to it that didn't exist, and we should take it as part of our due; and I should be such a coward that I couldn't tell the Board what I thought of our pusillanimity."

"It seems rather hard for men to act magnanimously in a corporate capacity, or even humanely," said Matt. "But I don't know but there would be an obscure and negative justice in such action. It would be right for the company to accept the property, if it was right for Northwick's daughter to offer it, and I think it is most unquestionably right for her to do that."

"Do you, Matt? Well, well," said Hilary, willing to be comforted, "perhaps you're right. You must send Louise and your mother over to see her."

"Well, perhaps not just now. She's proud and sensitive, and perhaps it might seem intrusive, at this juncture?"

"Intrusive? Nonsense! She'll be glad to see them. Send them right over!"

Matt knew this was his father's way of yielding the point, and he went away with his promise to say nothing of the matter they had talked of till he heard from Putney. After that would be time enough to ascertain the whereabouts of Northwick, which no one knew yet, not even his own children.

What his father had said in praise of Suzette gave his love for her unconscious approval; but at the same time it created a sort of comedy situation, and Matt was as far from the comic as he hoped he was from the romantic, in his mood. When he thought of going direct to her, he hated to be going, like the hero of a novel, to offer himself to the heroine at the moment her fortunes were darkest; but he knew that he was only like that outwardly, and inwardly was simply and humbly her lover, who wished in any way or any measure he might, to be her friend and helper. He thought he might put his offer in some such form as would leave her free to avail herself a little if not much of his longing to comfort and support her in her trial. But at last he saw that he could do nothing for the present, and that it would be cruel and useless to give her more than the tried help of a faithful friend. He did not go back to Hatboro', as he longed to do. He went back to his farm, and possessed his soul in such patience as he could.

XII.

Suzette came back from Putney's office with such a disheartened look that Adeline had not the courage to tell her of Matt's visit and the errand he had undertaken for her. The lawyer had said no more than that he did not believe anything could be done. He was glad they had decided not to transfer their property to the company, without first trying to make interest for their father with it; that was their right, and their duty; and he would try what could be done; but he warned Suzette that he should probably fail.

"And then what did he think we ought to do?" Adeline asked.

"He didn't say," Suzette answered.

"I presume," Adeline went on, after a little pause, "that you would like to give up the property, anyway. Well, you can do it, Suzette." The joy she might have expected did not show itself in her sister's face, and she added, "I've thought it all over, and I see it as you do, now.

Only," she quavered, "I do want to do all I can for poor father, first."

"Yes," said Suzette, spiritlessly, "Mr. Putney said we ought."

"Sue," said Adeline, after another little pause, "I don't know what you'll think of me, for what I've done. Mr. Hilary has been here--"

"Mr. Hilary!"

"Yes. He came over from his farm--"

"Oh! I thought you meant his father." The color began to mount into the girl's cheeks.

"Louise and Mrs. Hilary sent their love, and they all want to do anything they can; and--and I told Mr. Hilary what we were going to try; and--he said he would speak to his father about it; and--Oh, Suzette, I'm afraid I've done more than I ought!"

Suzette was silent, and then, "No," she said, "I can't see what harm there could be in it."

"He said," Adeline pursued with joyful relief, "he wouldn't let his father speak to the rest about it, till we were ready; and I know he'll do all he can for us. Don't you?"

Sue answered, "I don't see what harm it can do for him to speak to his father. I hope, Adeline," she added, with the severity Adeline had dreaded, "you didn't ask it as a favor from him?"

"No, no! I didn't indeed, Sue! It came naturally. He offered to do it."

"Well," said Suzette, with a sort of relaxation, and she fell back in the chair where she had been sitting.

"I don't see," said Adeline, with an anxious look at the girl's worn face, "but what we'd both better have the doctor."

"Ah, the doctor!" cried Suzette. "What can the doctor do for troubles like ours?" She put up her hands to her face, and bowed herself on them, and sobbed, with the first tears she had shed since the worst had come upon them.

The company's counsel submitted Putney's overtures, as he expected, to the State's attorney, in the hypothetical form, and the State's attorney, as Putney expected, dealt with the actuality. He said that when Northwick's friends communicated with him and ascertained his readiness to surrender the money he had with him, and to make rest.i.tution in every possible way, it would be time to talk of a _nolle prosequi_. In the meantime, by the fact of absconding he was in contempt of court. He must return and submit himself for trial, and take the chance of a merciful sentence.

There could be no other answer, he said, and he could give none for Putney to carry back to the defaulter's daughters.

Suzette received it in silence, as if she had nerved herself up to bear it so. Adeline had faltered between her hopes and fears, but she had apparently decided how she should receive the worst, if the worst came.

"Well, then," she said, "we must give up the place. You can get the papers ready, Mr. Putney."

"I will do whatever you say, Miss Northwick."

"Yes, and I don't want you to think that I don't want to do it. It's my doing now; and if my sister was all against it, I should wish to do it all the same."

Matt Hilary learned from his father the result of the conference with the State's attorney, and he came up to Hatboro' the next day, to see Putney on his father's behalf, and to express the wish of his family that Mr. Putney would let them do anything he could think of for his clients. He got his message out bunglingly, with embarra.s.sed circ.u.mlocution and repet.i.tion; but this was what it came to in the end.